OK -- time to travel back to freshman year, The Odyssey, the epic hero. What do you see in Beowulf that would still be considered "epically heroic" today? Will Beowulf replace the Dark Knight (Spencer...) in your pantheon of heroes? What is dated or downright bizarre in the poem for a modern reader?
4 comments:
Seeing as I read Grendel, I find it very difficult to take Beowulf as he's meant to be presented. Even though you can see the change in perspective in the writing, I can't help but taking little things that don't necessarily mean much as negatives. He seems arrogant to me, just charging into the kingdom ready to deal with their demon problem even though it doesn't matter to him, and I wonder why he never took a wife and bore a son. Coldness, perhaps?
What woman could tolerate such arrogance! Anglo-Saxon women perhaps but it's not hard for us to imagine him as a bachelor....
Beowulf does not even compare to a charcter such a Batman. Beowulf is not a respectable hero because he is by no means dynamic. he is one dimensional and a reader to apreicate a hero they must understand why they do what they do. Beowulf presents us with no motives or incentives for killing monsters. heros need to seem realistic and the audience must relate to them on some level.
You make a legit point Spence. I guess I've been blinded by the poetry! I just enjoy how crazy and epic the whole thing is and I like the description an dword play. It's so different from modern stuff.
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